


Phantom In The Dark

by FairyLights101



Series: Out of the Sun [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Character Death, Fluff, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 14:26:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9661271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyLights101/pseuds/FairyLights101
Summary: Keiji flung his arm out to Hijack as the villain flung concrete, glass, metal, anything he could at the illusion, who dodged and batted things away with a scythe of pure darkness. “He’sthe one trying to blow the district up! I don't kill people!”A laugh bubbled out of ChromeStar, robotic with his voice pitcher. “Guilty by association. He’syoursidekick.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous said to fairylights101writes:  
> #28 (A kiss before I go off and do something dangerous) for AkaOi
> 
> EDIT: take your attention to this _amazing_ [art by lokiodinson on tumblr](http://lokiodinson.tumblr.com/post/157799794294/a-collection-of-doodles-ive-done-for) because I'm _still screaming_ about how beautiful it is.

Keiji loosened his tie with a soft sigh, the cozy lights of the house easy on his eyes as he let his posture relax, the weariness of the day trickling out of his body. He set his bag down, toed his shoes off, and slowly stripped out of his jacket, wincing faintly as sore muscles pulled. The bedroom door was open, the light muted, the sound of the TV going quietly. He nudged the door open and smiled when his eyes found Tooru, sprawled across their bed with Keiji’s blue plaid pillow clutched into his chest. 

Tooru twitched, glanced up. A warm smile bloomed across his face as he reached out, fingers grasping at the air. Keiji laughed softly and shifted forward, sank into the bed and into that sweet embrace. The soft sound that built in Tooru's throat made him smile as he wrapped his arms tight around Tooru, buried his face into the curve of his neck. He smelled like soap, sweet and clean, and Keiji felt a little more tension flee his shoulders and weary muscles. His hand trailed along the bed, brushed Tooru’s muscled bicep. A dull static shock made them both twitch on contact and they pulled apart and grinned at each other. 

“Every time,” Tooru teased, but he kissed Keiji on the tip of his nose, on the corners of his lips, and then finally  _ really _ kissed him. Keiji smiled into it and curled his partner closer, drinking in the warmth, his scent, the thrum of his mind, a steady whir of bioelectricity in the base of Keiji’s skull. He stroked his way down to Tooru’s wrist before he leaned back and straddled him at the waist, legs splayed wide. 

Tooru’s free hand settled on his thigh as Keiji pulled that slender hand close, cradled it between his own two palms. His gut twisted as he stared at their fingers. The edges of his nails were blackened, the skin at the innermost part of his palm raw and red.  _ I didn’t clean up as well as I thought.  _ But no matter - Tooru never questioned it, assured that it was part of Keiji’s day job. He tugged Tooru’s palm in and kissed the bases of his fingers, lips lingering on each spot before he moved along. Wide brown eyes watched, enraptured, his lips parted slightly. 

Keiji smiled. “I love you,” he breathed against Tooru’s palm. 

The bedside lamp flickered as his eyes lit up, the smile spreading. “I love you too,” he whispered. He sat up, the hand on Keiji’s thigh sliding back to curl around his waist, a warm, steady weight that Keiji leaned back into as Tooru guided their hands to Keiji’s cheek. “You’re so beautiful,” his partner whispered, stroking along his cheekbones. “I don’t tell you enough-” 

“You tell me every day.” 

“Shush,” Tooru huffed as he pinched Keiji’s cheek before his touch and gaze softened again. He brushed Keiji’s hairline. “Such wonderful hair. It’s so fun to tug on, or brush, or wash. I still don’t understand how you keep it so soft.” A finger tapped beside his eye. “The prettiest eyes. I never know if they’ll be gray or blue or that pretty little purple like that one V-neck I like.” The touch roamed, down to his nose. “And this - so thin and nice. Almost makes me jealous.” Down to his lips as Tooru leaned close, eyes glittering. “And your mouth is beautiful too - always so soft and full. So distracting. You’re so bad for my health.” A kiss whispered across his mouth, the both of them grinning as their arms wound around each other. Another kiss, this one more sure. Lips slid together, languid, no hurry in their movements. Fingers tangled into hair, into shirts, pulled each other closer as they inhaled warm exhales and clung to one another, desperate for more. 

Keiji pulled back after a moment, heart thumping wildly, electricity crackling wildly in his veins. Words escaped him, so he just butted their noses together as Tooru giggled, light and sweet. It brought those nervous flutters from earlier back into his stomach, and Keiji’s breath hitched quietly. The fingers in his hair shifted, stroked in a gentle circle. Lips pressed to the side of his jaw, curled in a happy smile.  _ “Keiji,”  _ Tooru sang softly, “What’s on your mind?” 

He leaned back, body thrumming with electricity and energy, and slipped his hand into his jacket pocket, hand closing around the felt box inside. His heart stuttered a little faster, the way it had when he and Tooru had first gotten together, giggling over shy, secretive kisses and hands held as they licked at ice cream cones that dripped down their hands and arms in the summer heat. “Tooru…” he whispered as he took one of Tooru’s hands, turned it over. Those brown eyes were on him, owlish as he blinked, confused. 

Keiji pressed the box into his hand. 

His eyes snapped down, widening as his lips fell open, slowly moving, but nothing came out. The hand in Keiji’s trembled as his other fell from Keiji’s curls to cover his mouth, tears in his eyes. Keiji smiled, squeezed Tooru’s slender hand. “I’m not like you. I can’t say it all as well. But I still love you to the moon and back, and… I thought it was time I asked if you would marry me.” 

Tooru’s eyes shut tight as he shook his head back, shoulders jerking with quiet sobs as tears streamed down his cheeks.  _ “Keiji.”  _ Arms flew around Keiji, the momentum carrying him onto his back with a rush of air. Disbelieving laughter and sobs filled his ears as he wrapped his partner up close, grinning into that wild hair, cheeks aching.  _ “OhmyGod-”  _ Tooru blubbered, voice rising and cracking. 

Keiji couldn’t help but laugh softly as he smoothed his hands along Tooru’s broad back. “Tooru, you haven’t even looked at it.” 

His partner jerked upright and frantically scrubbed at his face, sniffling and grinning with red-rimmed eyes as he cradled the box to his chest and hesitantly cracked it open. His jaw went slack. He looked up slowly, eyes impossibly wide. “Keiji… you got  _ these _ ?” 

Keiji leaned closer and brushed Tooru’s hair back, pressed a kiss to his forehead as he eased the box from those loose fingers. “Of course,” he said simply. He slipped one of the rings, a smooth black band that split into two grooves filled with tiny purple diamonds surrounding a larger diamond that sat snug in the center atop a slender silver white band. The other one inside was for him, just a simple black band outlined by silver with small diamonds in a short strip in the middle. The same ones Hajime had said Tooru had been looking at when Hajime had been looking for rings for he and Kentarou. 

He set the box on Tooru’s thigh, then cradled his hand gently, the ring hovering by his finger. “Oikawa Tooru, will you marry me?” 

Soft lips wobbled. Fresh tears slipped out.  _ “Yes,”  _ Tooru croaked with a smile. Keiji grinned, heart pounding, as he slipped that ring down Tooru’s trembling finger. 

His partner fumbled, shoulders shaking, and then he pulled the other ring out, pulled Keiji’s hand close. Tooru skimmed a kiss across his knuckle, smiling through the tears. The ring was cool on his finger, perfectly sized, and it slid right on and sat snug at the base, Tooru’s fingers lingering on it. His other hand cradled Keiji’s face, trembling as he leaned close, bumped their heads together. “I thought you’d never ask.” 

Keiji snorted as he leaned in and gently kissed his lover, both of them giggling as another static shock went through their fingers.

* * *

 

**Ginza.**

One word, just one, stark against the little note with its thick black lines. Keiji started at it for a long moment, thoughts spinning as he clutched at his desk. Ginza, one of the biggest and most affluent shopping districts in Tokyo.  _ Ginza _ , which would be  _ flooded _ with people, innocent or not. His hand tightened, crumpled the note as he shoved his comm piece in and snarled. “What the fuck are you  _ doing _ ?” 

A crackle over the line, then a laugh, borderline psychotic.  _ “I’m just moving things along, Phantom!” _ his partner sang, voice lilting.  _ “Don’t worry, loss of life will be minimal! Maybe. That’s debatable. I would’ve waited until we managed to tweak the bomb more, but it was takin’ an awful long time! So I decided to expedite the process.” _

_ “Why?” _ Keiji spat as he spun around in the darkened space, feet already moving. He ripped his work suit off, the guise falling off easily and leaving him bare in the lab. He stepped forward, landed halfway across the room. Again, this time clear on the other side, past all of the electrical wires and bomb parts and papers. His body thrummed, electricity crackling the air and making his hair stand on end as he ripped a panel in the wall open and slapped his hand to it, laughter filling his ears. The wall slid open before him with a soft hiss. 

_ “Because Phantom, you said you wanted to overturn the world. Avenge your little hero friend, right?”  _

Keiji stilled for a split second, bloody running cold. He could still hear the crack of a gunshot, deafening in the quite. He could smell the blood, sharp, metallic overwhelming because he couldn’t stop it, couldn’t stem the tide of red.. Could still feel those ghostly touches that had filled Koutarou’s final moments, pawing at him, desperate to live, crying weakly before he went limp. He sucked down a breathe, ripped his uniform from the space inside. 

_ “We don’t kill people!” _ he snarled as he flung himself into the clothes, wrestling the full, loose black bodysuit on in record time. The copper wires woven into it resonated with the electricity that crackled off of him, sharp,  _ panicked.  _ “Hijack, what part of that do you not fucking understand?” 

His partner laughed, bitter and cold.  _ “That’s where you’re wrong.  _ You _ don’t kill people. I do. And these bastards deserve to die. Don’t interfere, or I’ll have to kill you too. And trust me, I know how to.”  _

The line crackled, went dead, and Keiji stood there for a moment, bare feet on cold concrete and trembling. He bit back a scream, forced down memories, and snatched the rest of his gear up. The half-mask, a mimic of an owl, settled over his mouth and nose. Goggles settled on his forehead, ready to be pulled down as soon as he stepped outside. Shoes, no rubber soles. Keiji reached for the pouch of cherry bombs and stilled, eyes settling on his fingers. On the black ring nestled above a knuckle. One shuddering breath. Two. 

_ I’m glad he doesn’t know. He doesn’t need to know that I might be the reason people die.  _ He was a villain to society, a scourge they wanted to wipe away - but that didn’t mean he wanted to  _ kill. _ But those self-righteous bastards - the ones that had  _ killed Koutarou _ , their supposed allies - they deserved to be toppled into the dirt. Crushed underfoot until nothing remained. But destroyed buildings and robbing banks and launching non-lethal attacks weren’t enough, were never enough against the big corps, the bastards who mindlessly slaughtered.  _ I won’t be tied to this. I won’t let anyone die!  _

Keiji worked the ring off, tugged at the silver chain around his neck, a birthday gift from Tooru. He slipped the ring off, looped it through the chain, and pressed it to his lips. “Hate me if I don’t succeed, forgive me if I do,” he breathed. He slipped the chain and ring back beneath his clothes. 

He teleported upstairs, body thrumming with energy. Up another, then another flight until blinding light crashed in, the stink of the city unfiltered in his nose. Keiji pulled his goggles down, face hidden, and darted forward towards the edge of the building. He teleported to the next rooftop, then the next. Gravel crunched underfoot. The squeal of brakes and shriek of horns filled the air.  _ I don’t have much time. Teleportation lasts ten minutes at best. It’s already been two. I can make it to Ginza in five, but fuck if I know  _ where _ he’ll be.  _ Ginza would be crowded - too much to sort out a distinct, signature electric register. 

He snarled to himself and tapped his comm piece. A ring, a click, a soft voice filled his ears.  _ “This is 110, what is your emergency?”  _

He crouched on the top of an office building, eyes sweeping across the city for a second before he sprinted forward and leapt off, teleporting and slamming into a nearby building’s rooftop in a roll before he took off again. “There’s a bomb in Ginza,” he snapped, “A villain by the name of Hijack plans to detonate imminently. Hero backup is advised.” He ended the call before they could trace it and darted forward, pushing himself further. 

His next jump was closer than the others and he stumbled, teeth baring.  _ I don’t have time for this limitation bullshit! _ Of all the innate talents those with supernatural abilities possessed, it was the jumps of all things that were severely limited so long as that wasn’t their main power focus. It was something almost every human with powers had - and yet it was insignificant when it lasted for just a handful of minutes and could only carry you a few kilometers at best. 

He slapped his thigh and leapt again, this time onto a telephone wire. An electrical current snapped down from him and joined the potent energy flowing through the wires and he leaned forward, shoving electrical currents against each other. The force of it, ingrained within his very body, pushed him along the wires. People cried out beneath. Electricity crackled. He stretched a hand out, sucking in the man-made electricity in the air as he sped by, leaping over breaks in the tracks of the wires. It would short out handheld devices, maybe generators too, but the less that his presence got out until the last minute, the better. The Phantom persona had a big price on his head after all, and having a hero on his ass as well as dealing with that idiot Hijack were  _ not _ a combination Keiji wanted to deal with. 

He drew in the electricity, funneling it back out into the wires beneath him, propelling him faster as he leapt through the air and skated from cable to cable, sprinting across the rooftops between them. Ginza swelled before him, skyscrapers full of luminescent glass in a thousand shades that danced across the faces of the buildings in waves. Keiji stilled at the edge of a building and took a breath, heart beating wildly as electricity trickled into his body. 

The next building was too far away to run too, no wires close by connecting them.  _ I really don’t want to do this. _ He kicked his shoes off, the soles of his feet pressed to the concrete, magnetic fields and bioelectric waves mixing in a flood. His head spun. Thousands upon thousands of bodies milled below, all in a tightly packed space. Electronics - lights, generators, handhelds, AC, so much more - filled the air with their waves of energy. All of it crashed into him, threatening to overwhelm, too much to sort through and find a single distinct sensation. 

“I hate the city,” Keiji breathed. He spread his arms out, palms facing the shopping district. Another breath. Electricity crackled at his fingertips. His eyes snapped open and he leapt into the air. It was a freefall plummet for the span of a heartbeat, and then the electricity in his palms amped up, blistering as it left, the sheer force of the charged particles keeping him afloat. Sweat trickled down his back as he glided over to the building and sank down onto the rooftop, body quivering. 

He panted as he moved, limbs shaking as more of the ambient energy flooded back in, his body drinking it up ravenously. He could feel the amperes of  electricity rising in his body, upwards of fifteen thousand already buzzing inside, ready to be released.  _ As soon as I find that son of a bitch- _ Keiji snapped his head from side to side, shaking it as he leapt to another building.  _ Just deactivate the bomb first.  _ Hijack would be in the most crowded place that would do the most damage - the main square was a given. That would grab attention when he left a massive crater and hundreds dead. 

Eyes narrowed, he scanned the crowd, seeking out any familiar movements. Namely a tall man with a limp from where he’d blasted his own leg off.  _ Probably has a hood up, or glasses and something covering his face. Fond of baggy clothes, particularly that stupid red hoodie when we’re out. He’ll have a big bag - that bomb isn’t going to be small - so probably a backpack. He has a tendency to go with ones that are black with orange details.  _ Every detail marked dozens of people off. Left a handful. And then only one who leaned up against a pole outside of Ricoh, head down, a bag hanging by their leg. Black with orange details. 

Keiji’s mouth twisted and he leapt onto the side of the next building, grabbing onto a pipe on it. Using that he twisted and leapt back to the previous building, clinging to the ledge of a window. He went back and forth, rapidly bouncing down the walls, clinging to it with electrical currents that bound him tight, before his feet hit the ground and he straightened up, bare feet itching to move. Keiji darted forward, careless of the crowd, as he darted forward. The crowd broke apart for just a moment. Keiji tasted the electricity in the air. 

_ Familiar.  _

A grin curled his lips as people started to shift, realizing just who the strange man with a half-mask, goggles, and tight hood was. They parted like the sea as he sprinted forward. Hijack twisted, eyes widening above his black bandana, and he threw a hand up. A piece of asphalt ripped itself up from the road, a barrier that rose in front of him, but Keiji darted to the side and raised his own hand. White electricity sparked, but it slammed into another barrier of asphalt as Hijack ducked to the side, the bag cradled into his chest. Screams filled the air. Phones were out, recording away. Keiji bared his teeth behind the mask. “Hijack!” he shouted, voice distorted from the built-in scrambler. 

“Fuck off!” the other man shouted as he waved his hand again. 

A light pole hurtled down where Keiji stood and he rolled forward, the metal clanging behind him as he straightened up, electricity crackling from his fingertips. “You have ten seconds to give it to me,” he hissed, hate seething in his stomach.  _ No one is going to die!  _

“They have to learn!” Hijack shrieked as his hand curled, clenching into a fist as he slid to the side. 

Keiji moved in the opposite direction, circling, closing the distance as the amperes in his body crawled higher, closer to twenty-thousand. His heart throbbed in his ears. “They can learn another way!” 

“No! No, no,  _ no!” _

Another gesture, and this time a ripple of asphalt roared towards Keiji, a great, rending wave. He slammed his foot to the ground and a bolt of electricity snapped up, ripped through the asphalt. It blew apart, crumbling into place as Keiji stepped forward, shoulders squared, hands clenched by his sides. 

“Do. Not. Hurt. These. People.” 

Hijack shifted his grip on the bag, twisted, prepared for another strike. 

A trumpeting cry made them both twist as booming steps shook the earth beneath their feet, an elephant charging toward them. Keiji’s heart leapt and he dove out of the way, reaching for its bioelectric signals as he rolled.  _ Blank. It’s not alive.  _ He stilled, crouched on the ground as the elephant charged at Hijack, who muffled a scream and threw up another asphalt barrier. Keiji’s head snapped away as the elephant collided with the asphalt and burst with a  _ crack _ , light flooding the road. 

“Smart. I can expect that from Phantom though.” 

His gaze rose, travelling up the knee-high black boots to the white pants with the blue Aoba Johsai design on his left him, up to the black jacket. The white helmeted head was turned on him, the black-glass visor reflecting him as he glared up at ChromeStar. The smooth, pitched voice made his spine crawl as those long, gloved fingers flicked, two other illusions appearing beside him - exact replicas of him. Corporeal too - their forms didn’t flicker or shift, the concentration of his powers enough to make them stable. One of them jumped across the street towards Hijack, who let out a muffled yell, and left Keiji faced by two of them. 

“I’m not the one you want,” he said lowly as he rose to his feet, the air around him crackling. “Not today.” 

“No,” ChromeStar sighed, “But I can still pick you up while I’m at it. Such a thorn in the side. Though, I wasn’t expecting you to go off the deepend like this. A  _ bomb,  _ Phantom? Really?” 

Keiji flung his arm out to Hijack as the villain flung concrete, glass, metal, anything he could at the illusion, who dodged and batted things away with a scythe of pure darkness. “ _ He’s  _ the one trying to blow the district up! I don't kill people!” 

A laugh bubbled out of ChromeStar, robotic with his voice pitcher. “Guilty by association. He’s  _ your _ sidekick.” 

Keiji bared his teeth in a snarl behind the mask.  _ You son of a bitch!  _ He snatched the whip from his hip, unfurled it in one smooth motion, and sent it cracking towards ChromeStar and his second illusion, blue electricity sparking off the copper and iron filaments woven in. They both dodged and the tail end struck the concrete, leaving a scorch mark. Keiji whirled, tracking the bioelectric signals from ChromeStar, strangely familiar, as he kept his eyes on the clone. 

It clutched a blade of seething light, heat waves rippling off of it, a sinister replica of the blade of shadows the real ChromeStar held. They both rushed him, the clone going from the left, the real one from the right, and Keiji cracked his whip at the first, a bolt of electricity sent at the second. Both missed as they jumped, teleporting a meter behind him, and Keiji spun, hand outstretched. A bolt of energy shot out of his palm, crackling like miniature lightning as it shot at the ChromeStar. 

He dodged out of the way as the clone darted in again, bindings made of shadows pouring from its hands. Keiji cracked spun away from the clone and snapped the whip forward, electricity crackling. It wrapped around the clone’s wrist, jerked him to a halt, and Keiji pulled on it. The clone slammed to the ground, the shadows and light blade in its hands disappearing. 

He straightened up, whirled on ChromeStar, and flung his hand out, clenching it as sweat dripped down his face. He felt the strain immediately, harsh,  _ painful _ as he grabbed at ChromeStar’s bioelectric signals. They slipped through his grasp once, but he reached out again and closed in on them with a shaky grin. He swept his hand towards the ground, fingers half-curled and white-knuckled, and ChromeStar staggered forward before he slammed to the ground, knees first, then smashed face-first into the asphalt. 

Keiji quivered, gasping as he fought for control, wrestling through the insulation in the suit and ChromeStar’s sheer willpower. The clone shattered apart, sinking into the ground in fragments of inky black. The fractional lapse in his attention allowed ChromeStar to rip his head from the ground, body shaking as he strained to rise. 

“Let… me… go,” he hissed. 

Keiji couldn’t respond, gasping as he channeled all the energy he could from the environment into pinning ChromeStar down. But he could feel his grip weakening, the strain too much,  _ too much-  _

A gloved hand rose from the asphalt and a bolt of shadows shot out, straight at Keiji. It slammed into his stomach and knocked him back, and just like that the tenuous control he’d had shattered. He slapped a hand to his stomach, pain flaring to life as he staggered, wheezing, eyes glued to ChromeStar. 

The hero rose, body shaking. But he stood tall, helmeted head jerked up, and raised a hand, his index finger pointed to Keiji. “You’re fucked,” he said. 

Keiji grinned wryly as he stepped back. The lights in the building to his right flickered out as he sucked every last bit of energy from it, the amperes in his body climbing, slower than before. Keiji swayed on his feet, dizziness and exhaustion crashing in. He could smell the char of skin, his fingertips blackened, his palms burning. His heartbeat was irregular, too quick. Sweat drenched his back as he gasped. He’d be lucky if he could remember the day when it was all over, or even feel his fingers for the rest of the week. But he still raised his hand. Right as a chunk of asphalt smashed into ChromeStar’s head. 

Glass shattered as the hero sank to the ground. Keiji whirled around, feet unsteady, head spinning. Hijack stood a few meters away, his hand outstretched. Keiji cast a glance around. A sea of people filled the streets, as far as away as they could get, no way to escape - Hijack had raised walls of cement and asphalt in front of every road into the central area. “It’s too late, Phantom!” Hijack shouted as he gestured to his feet  and the bag that lay there, tossed carelessly aside to reveal the bomb. One that was painfully familiar because  _ he’d helped develop it.  _ He’d recognize it anywhere, sleek and hulking. Designed to pack a punch - but not in a  _ populated area.  _ “Hijack-” 

“It’s armed! You can’t stop it! I’ve tried it your way, but these fools will never understand unless we  _ make _ them! You-” 

A lightning bolt  _ slammed _ down from the sky, the flash of light and boom shaking the earth as it struck Hijack. His body went rigid before it tipped forward and crumpled, his bioelectric signals trickling away, fading into the air, and Keiji drank them in, parched for energy. Keiji raised his hands. They were smoking at the tips. He could feel charges crackling through the air, ozone pungent in his nose. He listed to the side and stumbled before he managed to right himself, unsteady. A slow breath. His ears popped. 

A rasp of fabric made him turn, eyes drifting to the right. ChromeStar stood once more, the one-way glass cracked, falling out. But he was alive. The hero stood and shook himself before he grabbed his helmet and jerked it off in one smooth motion. One beat. Two. Keiji’s eyes snapped wide as he took a half step back, chest going tight. 

Sweat darkened the hair, made it cling to his scalp, falling over familiar brown eyes that snatched Keiji's breath away. Tooru swiped his fingers through his hair with a huff and chucked the helmet down before he whirled on Keiji. “So it looks like you do kill people after all.” 

The words were a blow, sharp, straight at his gut. Keiji's mouth worked, but nothing came out. He just stared forward, body shaking, electricity seeping back in. “That's not…” He glanced at the bomb.  _ These people don't have long.  _ Back to Tooru, who had light and darkness seething from his hands.  _ This can't be happening. There's no way.  _ But the proof was right before him, standing tall, a trickle of blood slipping down his forehead. Keiji gestured to the bomb, voice trembling. “If I don't stop that bomb everyone here is going to die.” 

Tooru stiffened, straightened up, the light and shadows fading away. The skin overtop his eyebrow sealed itself shut, the blood sinking into his flesh, leaving it unblemished once more.  _ That makes so much sense now.  _ He'd never seen Tooru hurt except for a broken bone or two and pulled muscles. But even those healed faster than normal. It explained the bioelectric signals, the strange sense of familiarity he got whenever he was near ChromeStar. The late night calls from his IT job - which was about as real as Keiji’s back breaking reporter job. 

He swayed again, staggered, and ChromeStar -  _ Tooru _ twisted on him, eyes wide. “Phantom, you okay?” His body was tingling, electricity filling his body, replacing what had been lost. He drew in  _ more,  _ forced his weary body to drain the environment around them as he took a slow step forward. Then another. Right until he was in front of Tooru, trembling violently. He grabbed his mask, shoved it down, and sucked in a deep breath.  _ Tooru, I'm sorry. Forgive me.  _

He grabbed the hero - his best friend, his lover, his  _ fiance,  _ and jerked him in. Their lips brushed, Tooru's breath hitching in surprise. It was warm, quick. Shot him straight back to that first kiss back when he was twenty and lost, Koutarou gone and no direction to his life except for Tooru, a guiding hand that had pulled him close. One that had pressed a feathery kiss to his forehead, his nose, his lips when he’d been crying so long that his eyes were puffy and red, aching from grief. Keiji bit his tongue and, selfishly, kissed Tooru even again, a static shock prickling across their lips, even though he wasn't breathing, wasn't moving, and then he ripped himself away. 

He forced his body to jump, reappearing beside the bomb before he ccollapse, legs too weak. Keiji threw his hands out and a rippling wave of energy rose from the ground, surrounding him a three-meter bubble. The electric current from the outside world disappeared, drowned him in a sort of silence as he pulled the bomb closer. He knew the layout of it - he'd helped develop it after all. The timer on the top was bright red, little more than five minutes left. 

He bit his tongue and got to work, hands trembling violently. He thrust his hand into his utility belt until he closed around a screwdriver and wrenched it out. He pried the back of it open in a quick move and stared at the wiring, the battery. It had changed since he’d seen it last, the battery pack different, the wiring switched around. But he could see the signs of their research - the fail safe. 

The bomb had been constructed in a way he didn't understand, not really - that was where Hijack’s talents and powers had come into play - but he understood the gist of it. He could drain the battery, but the bomb would detonate the second he did so. The same if it was removed. He didn't know enough about bomb wiring to even try and make a guess as to which one he could cut without it going off. And then there was the fear that if it did go off that it would break through his shield when he died and kill everyone nearby.  _ Fuck.  _

A thump made his head jerk up and he stared, wide-eyed, at Tooru. His face was wild as he pounded on the shield, Keiji's mask clutched in his other hand. “What are you doing?” the hero shouted, voice muted. 

Keiji just smiled weakly and ducked his head, focused on the bomb. Took a deep breath. Touched the ring that lay beneath his suit, cool on his skin. “I love you,” he whispered as he rolled his sleeves up. He grabbed the battery. Electricity pulsed through him, a full body thing that snatched his breath away as he forced it down his arms. Sweat trickled down his back. Energy crackled through the dome, seeping out before it snapped back in. A gasp punched out as he started to shake, body thrumming, tingling,  _ burning.  _

_ Too much. I'm using too much.  _

The thoughts were foggy, distant. Red dripped onto his hands, stark against his pale skin. 

_ More.  _

No one could die. There wouldn’t be another death, not on his hands. No more Koutarous. 

_ At least Tooru is here.  _

Just like he’d always been, by his side from the moment he’d stepped into university, still full of hope for the heroes of their world, for the cleansing of filth. Always there with a smile, a warm touch with static from Keiji that shocked them both. Tooru, who had electric touches of his own with the way he kissed Keiji, ran those warm hands down his body, pulled him close. A smile wobbled to life on Keiji’s lips. 

_ At least he lives.  _

The battery was blistering under his hand, the currents too much to take, the wires overloading. His heart stuttered. More blood, streaming out of his nose as he blinked through the haze, found Tooru staring at him, horrified. Keiji smiled. Tightened his grip. A pulse vibrated through the small dome, reverberating through his body as every bit of electrical energy he had flooded out, more than he’d ever used. A hiss reached him dimly. Smoke filled the air. His heart thumped, painfully hard, stumbling over its beats.

It stopped.

Keiji's hands slipped from the battery as he listed to the side, smoke curling off his blackened hands as the shield crumbled and thick, suffocating black swallowed him.

* * *

 

Tooru’s hand went tight on the mask as he watched Phantom collapse, spasming for a second before he went still. The translucent barrier around him shattered apart, dissipating into the air. He didn’t move. 

“Phantom?” 

Not even a twitch. Tooru’s swallowed hard, pressed his hand to his mouth as he stepped forward. Phantom had  _ kissed  _ him. The same villain that for the last five years he’d been trying so hard to catch. A kiss with a static shock. 

He fell to his knees beside the man, hands shaking as he rolled Phantom over, his body hot and smoking, reeking of static and burnt flesh. His face was covered in blood from where his nose had started to bleed, those dark goggles cracked on the right lens. The hood cinched tight around his hair had come loose, allowing short black curls to escape and spill over his forehead. Curled around a thin scar across his temple, familiar. 

_ No.  _

Hands shaking violently, he made to grab those goggles when a glint caught his eye, stopped him. The jumpsuit Phantom had always worn had holes burned into it, scorched on the edges. A chain was looped around his neck, the piece at the end peeking through one of the holes. A ring, slender and black, framed by silver with a strip of diamonds in the middle. Similar to the ring around his own neck.  _ Identical _ to the second one in the box pressed into Tooru’s hands barely twelve hours before. 

_ No. No, no, no.  _

Tooru pulled the goggles back. A quiet noise bubbled out as raw  _ agony _ ripped through him. Keiji’s eyes were fixed ahead, unfocused, glazed, his bloody lips parted, still upturned in that faint smile he’d worn before he’d crumpled. “Keiji…” Tooru croaked, hands patting at his face. “Keiji… Keiji, baby… wake up. C’mon. Don’t… don’t do this to me.” 

His fingers fluttered against his skin, already cool, too cool. Across his mouth - no breath. Down to his neck as Tooru started to gasp, the world blurring and spinning, chest threatening to cave in. Fingers to his pulse point. No familiar static shock.  _ Nothing.  _ “No…” he moaned, rocking back and forth as tears spilled down his cheeks. “No… no, no,  _ no,  _ Keiji,  _ Keiji no, _ you can’t do this, you c-can’t do this, don’t leave me, d-don’t-” 

He slapped Keiji’s chest as a sob burst out and he hunched over Keiji, shaking, whimpering as he clutched at his jumpsuit.  _ I fought him. I could’ve stopped him. I  _ fought _ him, accused him of trying to kill everyone, I- _ Lips parted in a silent scream, Tooru crumbled, shuddering as he clung to Keiji, vacant of  _ everything.  _ No heartbeat, no breathing, no laughter or smiles or sharp wit that left him breathless. 

_ “Keiji!”  _

He raised his hand to thump his chest again, but his hand barely brushed him, instead curled back into that stupid jumpsuit.  _ Why? God,  _ why _? _

Sirens broke through the rush in his head and he jerked back, head snapping around before he whirled back on Keiji. Hands trembling, he reached around his neck and fumbled with the chain once, twice before he managed to slip it off his neck. Tooru clutched it to his chest, tears rushing down his cheeks, as EMTs dragged him back, hauled Keiji onto a stretcher. It took everything he had to not lunge for him as someone wrapped a blanket over him while they loaded him into an ambulance, one blackened hand trailing through the air, and slammed the doors shut. He just ground his hands into his face, sobbing, barely breathing, not even hearing as he ground the ring into his hand. 

_ I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I should’ve stopped you, I should’ve known. Keiji, baby, oh God, Keiji, I’m so fucking sorry.  _

Hands curled on his wrists and the touch made him flinch, jerk back. Hajime - Babylon as the world knew him - stared at him, shell-shocked, too many emotions on his face for Tooru to sort out. He just sagged forward and his friend caught him, pulled him close as Tooru buried his face into his neck, careless of snot and tears. “I killed him,” he choked out, “I-I could’ve stopped him, could’ve-  _ Keiji.  _ Hajime,  _ Phantom was Keiji.  _ A-and I… I…” 

A keen bubbled out as Hajime curled him closer, held him tight. For once there were no reassuring words. Only silence between them as sirens wailed and the noise of the crowd swelled around them. He clutched the ring tighter as a fresh wave of sobs climbed in his throat, overwhelming.  _ I’m so sorry. _

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment yo. It took a lot of research to get something halfway believable, and a lot of energy to write this.  
> I also didn't have the time to edit this too intensively, so there are probably some mistakes I'll try and fix later.  
> There'll be a second part eventually, probably as another one shot, so follow me here or at [fariylights101writes](http://fairylights101writes.tumblr.com) for more! Thanks for reading (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑


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